Lifestyle blog by a thirty-something city dweller

Tag Archives: election

I wrote a few weeks ago about the up-coming General Election and it created some really interesting conversations and discussions. Something really important which came up was that lots of people didn’t realise they need to register to vote.

The process for voter registration changed in June 2014 and now it is up to each individual to register (it used to be a single household registration which would list all names of eligible voters in that house). An upside of this change though is that you can now register online, making it even easier to do.

An October 2014 report suggested that 9 in 10 people were automatically transferred to the new system but if you were the 1 in 10 who were missed off, or if you weren’t registered to begin with, then you need to get it sorted.

There is a General Election in the UK this year. It’s on 7th May. Which is exactly eight weeks away. If you are eligible to, please go and vote.

Why should I vote?A hundred years ago, I would not have had the right to vote. As a female, it was not a liberty I would have been afforded here in the UK. Thanks to the tireless efforts, campaigning and activism of strong women, such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Annie Kenney, most women over the age of 30 were first granted the right to vote in 1918. This was amended in 1928 to include women aged over 21 (in line with the rights given to men). The voting age for everyone was then lowered to 18 in 1969.

Since I turned 18, I have voted in every election held: European elections, General Elections, local elections, elections for crime commissioners. Even when I was out of the country on my gap year, I had my mum vote as my proxy. The universal right to vote fundamentally represents the democracy we live in. Voting gives us the power to influence how our country is governed; it is our way to speak up. It reflects the work of the suffragettes a hundred years ago. It reflects the ongoing work of our armed forces at home and abroad in ensuring our liberties. It reflects our history, our present, and our future.